Diamond’s Morgan Lamar, Logan Myers to continue careers

Friday

Mar 15, 2013 at 12:23 AMMar 15, 2013 at 12:36 AM

A pair of Diamond High School standouts will be headed to college to continue their athletic careers next season, as Morgan Lamar signed with Graceland University for softball on Wednesday, and Logan Myers inked with Ozark Christian College in Joplin to play basketball on Thursday.

Levi Payton

A pair of Diamond High School standouts will be headed to college to continue their athletic careers next season, as Morgan Lamar signed with Graceland University for softball on Wednesday, and Logan Myers inked with Ozark Christian College in Joplin to play basketball on Thursday.

For Morgan, the Lady Wildcats’ ace hurler says she enjoys pitching, though it’s not her favorite position on the softball field.

Lamar, the daughter of Kelly and Tammy Lamar, admitted on Wednesday that her favorite position on the diamond is actually second base, which is good for her, because she’s likely to split plenty of time at both positions for the Graceland University Lady Yellowjackets next season, according to Graceland assistant coach Bill Dudek.

Lamar, who went 9-10 with 67 strikeouts on the mound last season, and batted .315 with two home runs, a triple, five doubles and 20 RBI, inked a letter of intent with Graceland (Lamoni, Iowa) on Wednesday at Diamond High School.

There Lamar figures to get an extended look on the mound for the Lady Yellowjackets, but she’ll likely also see time at second base under coach Bryn Braddock.

“We graduated a couple of middle infielders,” Dudek said. “This year we recruited a pretty good pitcher. I’m sure Bryn will look at her at pitcher first, but she’s going to take a lot of ground balls. If she strikes everybody out, she’s going to pitch. What we don’t want to do is waste anybody who has talent.”

A member of Diamond’s last conference and district championship team in 2009, Lamar has also garnered a pair of second team all-conference selections, as well as two all-district awards during her sophomore and senior seasons at Diamond. She says Graceland was an easy choice, citing sports and academics as the driving force behind her choice.

“Sports and also academics,” she said. “I have played softball for several years, so college softball has always been a big thing for me.“We contacted coach Braddock at Graceland, and she said that she would like to look at me and, basically, it was really easy from there. She gave me a lot of info and it was easy from there.”

Myers, 6-foot-4 and the son of Dirk Myers and Kelly and Doug Youngblood, said after a pair of visits to OCC, and with several friends already attending the school, that the decision to join the Ambassadors was an easy one.

“I’m pretty excited,” Myers said. “Coach (Chris) Lahm is a great guy, and I’m excited to see if I fit in to their team and see what I can do for them. OCC, from what I’ve heard, is a great school. I’ve visited a couple of times, so I have a lot of friends that go there and they’ve all told me it’s a great school.”

An all-district and all-conference selection during his career with the Wildcats, Myers, who averaged 13.2 points and 7.6 rebounds per game for coach Brandon Rabel, figures to bring a versatile and unselfish brand of basketball to Lahm’s program.

“I’d like to keep him,” Rabel deadpanned. “Excellent young man, he’ll be a really good addition for Ozark. I think it’ll be beneficial for both he and the school. Obviously, Logan has got he skills and everything to play anywhere on the floor.

“Even if sometimes the averages on points weren’t there, he still made a huge impact on the game with his defense and his rebounding. Sometimes he gave up the offense to guard the other teams’ best player.”

Lahm said Myers should fit into his system easily.

“Logan is going to fit in very well with the system that we run with the four-out, perimeter offense that we run,” Lahm said. “Logan can put the ball on the floor, he can shoot it. He seems to be able to get to the rim pretty well. As a young man, character wise, I know he’s top-line, and he’ll fit in very well with our school and with our team.”